Soledad O’Brien Burns CNN For Calling Out White House Lack of Diversity: Where’s CNN’s Senior Black Staff?
Former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien landed a solid hit on the network Monday, after the CNN Politics Twitter account shared a story about diversity within the Trump administration. O’Brien turned the question back on CNN regarding their own leadership.
ABC’s Jon Karl asked White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway about the topic on Sunday, following President Trump‘s public feud with former confidante Omarosa Manigault.
“Who is the most prominent, high level adviser to the president on the West Wing staff right now?” he asked. Conway did not have a name.
The CNN Politics tweet on the subject said “President Donald Trump has no black people in the senior White House staff.” O’Brien turned it back and asked about CNN’s own diversity in leadership roles, and for that matter in cable news overall.
Very terrible! But, uh, walk me through the senior black staff at @CNNPolitics or @cnn or, hey, I’ll take cable news…. https://t.co/AIYlVZ1mkN
— Soledad O’Brien (@soledadobrien) August 14, 2018
CNN did not reply to her tweet.
A list of CNN’s top leadership is available online here. Here’s are the names and faces.
O’Brien is not the first to bring up this type of disparity in the network’s questioning of diversity in others. In June, Fox News Channel’s Harris Faulkner appeared on The View and was asked about diversity in Fox’s lineup. Sonny Hostin asked Faulkner if she got flack for being the “only woman of color with her own daily show on Fox.”
“I know you say the only one on Fox,” Faulkner replied. “Where is MSNBC’s? Where is CNN’s? I think HLN, and that’s new.”
Harris Faulkner and Soledad O’Brien may not be driving at the same precise point, but overall they are making the same observation about CNN. It’s one thing to cast diversity stones at the White House, but at least be cognizant if you’re doing it from your own mostly white house.
Mediaite reached out to CNN for a comment on Soledad O’Brien’s question but had not received a response at the time of this posting.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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